And here's the text of Penn's Q&A with the fellas on Monday's Courtside, breaking down the Blazers' cap space this summer and what the free agent market may look like.

Defining his new title/position:

"We're going to define what it entails. There's going to be a few changes in what we do and how we operate, but we tend to work as a team together and we're going to keep doing that. I don't know. We're going to have to find out."

Rough number for what the Blazers will have to spend under the cap this summer:

"The bigger factor in that is where the cap's going to come in, because we don't know (yet). The cap figure gets set by the league based on where revenue comes in for this season--and this season's not done yet. Then there's a huge complicated audit the player's association looks at, then they just come up with this figure.

One of the things we do is try and predict where that cap's going to be. So based on our prediction where' the cap's going to be, and based on if we were to keep our draft pick at (number) 24, and if we were to keep the other assets around that sit on the cap--whether we sign them or not--and those are first round picks from the years before, with all those things included and with the option players exercised, we're at about $6.5 to 7 million in cap room.

So in order to get more cap room you just think of incremental pieces or things that could be removed to add to that number. And without changing anything on the court, with what we had last year, we could remove a few things and have more like $9 million in cap room.

So we have a spread of flexibility without affecting the guys who are out on the court right now."

On the trade exception acquired in the Ike Diogu-for-Michael Ruffin deal:

"You can never combine any exception with cap room because as soon as you decide to be a cap room team, as soon as you sign a player using cap room or a acquire him using cap room, then you immediately, by definition, forfeit your exceptions.

So what you can't do is spend that $7 million we just talked about and then go spend the mid-level exception (MLE) and use a trade exception and that kind of thing. So once you decide you're going to be a cap team, then you forfeit your exceptions."

On free agency and the current economy:

"The whole concept of free agency is uncharted waters with the economy. The overarching thing we're trying to get our arms around is 'how is the economy going to affect the market place?' And that's the great unknown we don't really have a handle on yet. And that could effect, in theory, what kind of free agents we could go get. Because, in theory, we should be a more attractive franchise right now because we're sitting at 54 wins, second-best record in the West and we're in a position where we can try to go for it a little bit.

We're no longer developing players and coming along. The team that we are now, we should be more attractive to that veteran who is less interested in money and more interested in achievement. But it's too early.

You could see a scenario where the market gets reduced, guys get a little less interested in money and more in trying to go for it and maybe we're the right dancing partner."